Nov 29, 2012

My knitting bag is quite full these days. I feel energized and optimistic about all the things I can and will make. Part of the reason for this are the things that I have finished recently and particularly this sweater. It’s the Tulip baby sweater which I have wanted to make since I first saw it over three years ago.

Since then I have dreamed about these sweaters and tried to settle on which baby I’d make it for since, until recently, I had none. But in all honesty the Dream in Color yarn is kind of pricey and you need quite a few skeins. I’d have to really, really, love a baby to make that kind of investment. So for three years I dreamed of making the sweater and bought yarn. This picture was taken in March. Since then I bought a *few* more skeins.

When I finally sat down to choose my color line up my daughter was kind of shocked at the amount of yarn I was choosing from. I could probably make one of these for Miss M for the next 4 years and still have yarn left over. And I may just do that because there are so many color combinations you can go with. Part of the fun (and challenge) is in selecting just the right colors in the right order.

Once I chose the colors the knitting itself was fast and easy. Based on notes I read on other completed projects I made the 2 year old size but added 2 rows to each stripe (changing every 10th row instead of every 8th). It was a good call but I inexplicably decided to go with 8 rows on the sleeves and they came out more ¾ than full. This is really ok for a baby because it means that she drags her sleeves in her food less. It’s worth noting though.

Ultimately, this sweater lived up to all the anticipation and Miss M loves it. It’s a good thing that the yarn seems pretty sturdy because she tries to put it on herself often and stretches it this way and that. No worries though, because it still looks great every time she wears it.